Over the last few years my family and I have binged all of Star Trek, then moved on to Star Trek adjacent shows like The Orville and Stargate. At the moment we’re not really watching anything sci-fi. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for similar shows (or maybe some books) that fill the void left by Star Trek. In particular I really like the episodes that deal with interacting with other civilizations, diplomacy, and exploration more-so than say, an anomaly episode.
Classic Who went through enough changes that there might be something you enjoy in there. It was arguably at its best during the Tom Baker years. (Season 12). If you can’t get into that, then it may just not be your jam. A lot of the charm to the old series came from the low budgets and aggressively short production times. But with the 4th Doctor they had gotten a little more confidence from BBC and I think their budgets started getting bigger for a few years.
The original Doctor Who in the 60s was more like original series Star Trek, in that it sometimes felt more like a stage production than a television show, and that kind of writing is understandably dated.